A refugee is a person who’s not yet in the US and is applying to get here. An asylum-seeker is a person who is already on US soil. Refugees/asylum seekers are different from immigrants/migrants. Oh and “illegals” is an inadequate and incorrect term that criminalizes human beings.
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The motivations for arrival between refugees/asylees and immigrants/migrants are fundamentally different. There are also different domestic laws and international human rights treaties that inform what specifically should happen with refugees/asylees.
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A person seeking asylum may do so at a port-of-entry or once already in the US, even without authorization. The US has a responsibility to consider anyone’s petition for asylum. Turning people away who are asking for asylum is against domestic and international law.
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Several people have pointed out that we should refer to those on the caravan as refugees. I get why: it’s a group of people who say they’re fleeing persecution. However, refugees are technically people who already applied as refugees before coming to the United States.
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Applying to be recognized as a refugee from Central America to the US is a long shot and likely a waste of time. That’s why people practice their rights and come to a port-of-entry: once they’re physically here, a bunch of laws say they can’t just be sent back.
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While the term refugee doesn’t exactly fit people on the caravan, asylees doesn’t perfectly fit, either. Not until they reach a port-of-entry. When people are on their way to claim asylum, they’re something like soon-to-be asylees. Asylum-seekers is probably the best term.
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It’s not necessarily by design that we don’t have a perfect term, but Central Americans fleeing persecution isn’t new. If language reflects culture then we live in a culture where we have no term to describe *generations* of brown people fleeing state violence in groups.
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As I explained earlier, immigrants/migrants are incorrect terms here, both for practical and legal reasons. The most incorrect term? “Illegals.” Coming to a port-of-entry and asking for asylum is legal. Doing so is recognized by domestic and international law. Period.
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More than anything else (and for journalists especially since that’s whose getting a lot of this stuff wrong!) be conscious of the words you’re using and what they mean. For more on this, I suggest following scholar
@AbregoLeisy and my homie (and also a scholar)@PalmTreesnGz.Show this thread
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Wondering...if they aren't from Mexico, what is the term to describe them in relation to that country? What's their legal status there, and should that inform the descriptors we use in the US press?
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